Cowboys
Some chief architects just wing it. They run enterprise architecture and EA governance by relying on their personal experience. They think in patterns and anti-patterns — they even dream in patterns and anti-patterns.There are several characteristics of the cowboy chief architect:
strong personality
a realist who makes deals — picking and choosing his/her fights
builds close relationships but also has a lot of enemies
plenty of style but little tact
Enterprise architecture is all about getting the organization moving in a unified direction. Cowboy chief architects are effective in this regard. By the sure force of their personalities they're able to drive enterprise wide architectural initiatives. They're also effective in motivating projects to take architecture seriously.
Cowboy chief architects tend to be embroiled in politics and often let this cloud their architectural judgement. They have deep technical knowledge but lean towards overconfidence — occasionally making rash architectural decisions.
Robots
The robot chief architect formalizes enterprise architecture — seeking a repeatable process.They think in terms of automation. After all, a long career in IT makes a chief architect a verifiable automation expert. So why couldn't enterprise architecture be automated with questionnaires, templates, checklists and governance processes?
The characteristics of the robot chief architect are:
fair and consistent
diplomatic
reliance on defined principles and checklists
views architecture as a set of rules and validations
Robot chief architects do everything by the book. In doing so, they're able to gain wide acceptance for enterprise architecture governance. It's harder to be disgruntled about a governance body that's fair.
Robot chief architects tend to establish overly complex processes that may be seen as a architectural tax that adds little value. They're also too diplomatic to drive significant enterprise change.
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